Brie Ruais facts for kids
Brie Ruais is an American artist who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She creates large, unique sculptures made from clay, and also works with performance art, photography, and video. Her art often includes big installations that are made for specific places.
Brie Ruais's art focuses on the way she makes things, using her body and its movements. She explores ideas about the environment, how women relate to the world (sometimes called eco-feminism), and what it means to use your body in art. Her work is similar to that of other artists who use their bodies in their art, like Janine Antoni and Bruce Nauman. It also connects to artists who work with the land, such as Ana Mendieta, and the energetic style of action painting. Some people compare her art to artists like Georgia O'Keeffe and Agnes Martin, who were inspired by nature.
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Early Life and Education
Brie Ruais was born in Southern California in 1982. She went to New York University and earned her degree in Studio Art in 2004. Later, she continued her studies at Columbia University, getting her Master of Fine Arts degree in 2011. There, she learned from artist Jon Kessler.
How Brie Ruais Creates Her Art
Brie Ruais's clay sculptures show both the natural, earthy feel of clay and the marks of her actions. She often works on the floor, starting with a plan and a large amount of clay – sometimes as much as her own body weight!
The names of her artworks often describe the movements she makes. For example, titles like "spreading out from center," "compressing," or "pushing landscape" tell you about her process. She works very physically and quickly, using her whole body. She might kick, spread, scrape, or shove the clay across the floor or up a wall.
After she finishes shaping the clay, she cuts it into pieces. Then, she adds glaze (a special coating), fires it in a hot oven (kiln), and hangs the finished sculpture on a wall. The final artwork shows all the marks from her process. You can see swirls and grooves left by her fingers, elbows, and even her boots! These sculptures are like maps that show how they were made. Brie Ruais's art explores what her body and the clay can do.
She is well-known for her round wall sculptures, which are usually about 80 inches (2 meters) wide. She makes these pieces on the floor, then hangs them upright. They can look like clocks, starbursts, or even wounds. For example, in her 2018 work Scraped Away from Center, 130lbs (Night), the colored clay spreads out from the middle, where she knelt, forming a circle with rough, jagged edges.
Books Featuring Her Work
Brie Ruais's art is included in a book called Vitamin C: Clay + Ceramic. This book, published by Phaidon Press in 2017, features 100 important clay and ceramic artists from around the world. These artists were chosen by leading experts in the art world.
Exhibitions
Brie Ruais's art has been shown in many places. Here are some of her exhibitions:
- 2021 Movement on the Edge of the Land, Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, TX
- 2021 Taking Space: Contemporary Women Artists and the Politics of Scale, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
- 2021 This is America, Kunstraum Potsdam, Berlin, Germany
- 2021 This Earth: Notes and Observations From Montello Foundation Artists, The Southern Utah Museum of Art, Cedar City, UT
- 2020 Formed and Fired: Contemporary American Ceramics, The Anderson Collection, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
- 2020 The Body, The Object, The Other, Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
- 2020 Afterimages, Musée d’art de Joliette, Joliette, Québec, Canada
- 2019 Earth Piece, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
- 2019 America Will Be!: Surveying the Contemporary Landscape, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
- 2019 Intimate Immensity, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
- 2019 The Form Will Find its Way: Contemporary Ceramic Sculptural Abstraction, The Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
- 2017 New Ruins, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington DC
- 2015 Crafted: Objects in Flux, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA
- 2015 The Familiar and the Indefinable in Clay: The Scripps 71st Ceramic Annual, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Claremont, CA
- 2014 EAF14 Exhibition, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
- 2013 Vessels, The Horticulture Society of New York, New York, NY
- 2011 BYTS Bosch Young Talent Show, Stedelijk Museum, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Awards
Brie Ruais has received several important awards for her art:
- 2021 Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant, First Place
- 2018 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
- 2017 Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, NY, NY
- 2017 Montello Foundation Residency, Montello, Nevada
- 2016 Dieu Donne, Workspace Program Residency, NY, NY
Collections
You can find Brie Ruais's artwork in the permanent collections of several museums and art spaces, including:
- Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
- Matamoros Art In Embassies Collection, Mexico
- Burger Collection, Hong Kong
- Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH
- Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
